how many experience points per game?

[t0m]

a post i read today got me thinking that everyone here probably deals with experience points a bit differently. so i thought i would ask a few questions.

-how much experience do you give out on average per game session?
-how long is that session?
-do you go by the book (25 per skill etc)?
-what other things do you give points for?(role playing, fancy moves etc)

my answers (because im sure everyone is dying to know lol) i find that my players get from 600 to 1000 per game. we play twice a week for about 5 hours a game. in combat i track all the spells cast and psionics used, cinematic moves and called shots, and smart tactics and give points for them. outside of combat i give points for really noteworthy role play, the healer gets points for helping people, doing heavy trade (like buying stuff for the sole purpose or re-selling it at a profit) and for good plans (especially if it avoids combat somehow, or helps advance the group or story).

when i design scenarios (and also when they just pop up) i think up small bonus things like +150 for making sure no bystanders get hurt/rescuing all the hostages/not alerting any guards.

most of the time the experience they get is pretty equal in games with combat and games without combat. the group ends up being very even in terms of points earned, and are constantly going back and forth between who has the most total experience points. i also have the advantage that all my current players (save for my girlfriend) are new to palladium and havnt memorized all the books, therefore they dont know the old 1000 points for jumping in front of a fireball trick. when we were kids playing this 15 years ago we would have a shoving match whenever a fireball (or similar situation) got launched, literally dying for that 1000 points. the safest person was the one being shot at

[dragon_blaze_99]

Q-how much experience do you give out on average per game session?

A - not more then one level but normal 500-800 some times a little more

Q-how long is that session?

they average 6-9 hours about twice a week

Q-do you go by the book (25 per skill etc)?

most of the time I use all of them but for the skill roll is only once per game per skill you cant roll computers 100 times for 2500 exp just 25 for all computer rolls

Q-what other things do you give points for?(role playing, fancy moves etc)

something I got from another game is at the end of the game everyone decides (and writes on paper as a secret) how played their character the best ( game play quick thinking, Alignment etc) and if over 1/2 the players agree that person get a 200 xp bonus

Dragon_blaze

[The ineffible GM]

It's been a while since I last ran a Palladium game (though am gearing up for another again)

When I did, Experience averged between 1100 and 1400 a session. Sessions were between 6 and 8 hours, generally, once every 2-3 weeks.
I tracked very little during the session, just noting in my head good things people did and at the end of the session doing a quick recap of the session from each player's perspective. I tried tracking everything for the first couple of sessions when the campaign started, and it tended to come up around 1000 and 1200. So I stopped bothering with all the extra math and paper work, and went with the quick recap method.

[DhAkael]

anywhere from 150 points (if a player shows up to say a few lines at the end of a session), to nearly 2400 in a single session!
Average is about 600-700 per PC though. It all depends on what the character does, how they do it, and wether it bored everyone to tears or made their jaws drop.

I also award bonus EXP to players who can make me *blink*

[AllMightyRCB]

I mostly go by the book. They only can get XP for a skill twice a session, and I hand out the XP after a "mission", but it might take a couple sessions to complete 1 mission within my campaign, and when I play in person the sessions usually go about 8-10 hours. By mission I mean some point in the story of some significance.

[SkyeFyre]

It varies. Some days my players are a little slow and I only end up handing out like 300-400. Others they blow my mind and I'm sitting here going... "I must have calculated that wrong, you guys are getting around 2800.

We used to game a lot, now it's more like twice a month for about 4-5 hours.

I use the palladium exp guidelines. In addition for specific tasks. Like if they complete a mission without using force, or something like that there's a bonus. Generally at the end of each quest I'll throw in another 1000-2000 depending on how tough it was. Comic relief usually gives some extra, especially if they've got the entire group rolling on the floor laughing. In combat I have a simple formula that calculates their performance during combat taking into account how long the combat took, how one sided it was...etc. Spells, and psionics count as skills. So casting a spell under heavy fire might give them 25exp and if it's creative they'd get additional.

[DhAkael]

I also award bonus EXP to players who can make me *blink*

Addendum: it is extremely rare for this to happen. I've been gaming for nearly 23 years solid, and GM'ing for 20. So it has to be completely off-the-wall but plausible to warrent a *blink*

[DocS]

I do the Palladium chart (which gives 500-700 exp/session) plus a net rate of 100 exp/hour of game session, which adds another 500-700 exps.

[Josh Sinsapaugh]

I go strictly by the book, which generally nets my players around 900-1200 EXP per six hour gaming session.

~ Josh

[KillWatch]

here's mine, average players get 3-500 good players get1-2k for 4-8 hours

E X P E R I E N C E T A B L E
I T E M R E W A R D
Out of Game
Arriving 100
Sharing/Bringing Food 100
Cooking for group 100-500
Lending Dice 100
Not using Player Knowledge 100

IN GAME

MECHANICS
Per skill use 10
Per luck roll 100
Choosing Natural Talent 250

Role Playing
Personal Sacrifice 1-500
Alignment 1-500
Disposition 1-500
Nature 1-500
Valued Person 1-500
Valued Possession 1-500
Playing in character 1-500
Trademark 1-500
Quirk 1-500
Motivation 1-500
Character History Involvement 1-500
Character Family Involvement 1-500
Overcoming some Bad Habit or Influence 1-500
Role Playing a Struggle 1-500
Role Playing an Aftermath 1-500
Character Realization 1-500

GENERAL
Clever/Futile Idea/Action 1-100
Clever/Useful Idea/Action 1-200
Daring/Heroic Clever/Not 1-200
Plan/Action that Saves Self 1-100
Plan/Action that saves PC 1-250
Plan/action that saves NPC 1-500
Risking Minor Damage to help others 1-100
Risking Serious Damage to help 1-250
Risking Life to help 1-500
Avoiding Unnecessary Violence 1-250
Avoiding Killing Foe 1-500
Deductive Reasoning/Insight 1-500
Good Judgment 1-100
Humor without disruption 1-100
Encouraging Party Member OOG 1-400
Encouraging Party Member IG 1-1000
Promoting Teamwork/Unity 1-200

Threat Level
Threat: Personal 1-100
Threat: Group 1-250
Threat: 10-50 1-500
Threat: 51-100 1-750
Threat: 101-1000 1-1,000
Threat: City 1-2,500
Threat: County 1-5,000
Threat: State 1-7,500
Threat: Region 1-10,000
Threat: Nation 1-25,000
Threat: International 1-50,000
Threat: Global 1-75,000
Threat: Planetary System 1-100,000
Threat: Galaxy 1-500,000
Threat: Universe 1-750,000
Threat: Interdimensional 1-1,000,000

[t0m]

dragon_blaze_99 - i like the idea you use for bonus xp. ill probably give it a try tomorrow.

AP78 - 12 hour game? nice must take a lot of fuel (pop, snacks, beer, cigarettes etc)

CaptRory/AllMightyRCB - yeah i tend to do that sometimes too, but sometimes its just because im lazy or dont have time after a game to calculate it all. we just finished a really long mission that took about 3 months of game sessions (old ones dungeon crawl). i did xp twice during that time. the first time most of the group went up a level somewhere near the middle of the mission, then i tallied up the rest when they finished the job.

The ineffible GM - i like the sound of this for speeds sake, and because i can usually guess/know how much each person got without adding it up, but i track the stats separately (for their own sake) so it only makes sense to actually use them to calculate xp for me.

DhAkael - my players get the same bonus for making me 'blink', and also keeping the group laughing or thinking on their toes. sometimes i give points for messing up my plans too (but i learned not to plan anything with this group after they wrecked every plan i made )

SkyeFyre - i would like to see your combat performance index is it an actual formula or is it mostly in your head? any kind of break down would be cool.

DamonS - 100/hour seems like a fair way to deal with 'playing in character'. i usually give them that one once per session, but there have been times (with one of my newest players) where i wasnt sure if i should because there were moments when he wasnt really in character.

Josh Sinsapaugh - are your games balanced with combat and non combat parts or do you have sessions with no fights in them? i only ask because you are one of the highest averages so far, and i find i have to make up reasons (not go by the book) to give xp in non combat sessions (like giving points for being a merchant on the side etc).

Nethel - how do you determine the xp per encounter, and how do you give it out? does the whole group get an equal amount?

KillWatch - wow nice chart. *copy/paste*. i like that you give points for out of game stuff. i just did that too for one of my players who writes his characters journal when hes at his real life job slacking off

its good to see that everyone is pretty even in terms of how much xp per session. i thought i was being pretty hard on my group but it looks like im pretty close to average.

for skill use i see a few different ideas here. i give out the 25 per successful use of a skill. my players (fortunately) dont try to cartwheel everywhere we have a healer and an earth warlock who both use a lot of herbs, and both tend to prefer finding their own. we do camping trips where i give them 1 roll/hour of searching for herbs, then we take all the successful rolls and roll on a chart i made to see what they found. avereage camping trip (2 days) usually nets them around 400 xp for skill use (a total of finding and preserving/preparing the herbs), but none for anything else like playing in character, since we dont role play the trip, we just roll dice until they get their herbs and move on.

[Damian Magecraft]

I design an adventure to give out an average of 500 to 800 exp to all players
then indiviual rewards are handed out to each player this tends to average out to another 200 to 300 exp

[t0m]

Nethel - i like your % system. i use a simpler version where i try to balance the hp and combat bonuses of the group/enemies somehow. i give the xp by the book though with minor, major and great (by the opponent, not per fight). that gives the fighter a chance to catch up on xp after a long stretch of merchantile and diplomacy (which he rarely gets xp from).

Damian Magecraft - does the 5-800 get rewarded for completing the adventure, or do you try to make the fights and stuff equal out to your total as you write it out?

[Damian Magecraft]

Nethel - i like your % system. i use a simpler version where i try to balance the hp and combat bonuses of the group/enemies somehow. i give the xp by the book though with minor, major and great (by the opponent, not per fight). that gives the fighter a chance to catch up on xp after a long stretch of merchantile and diplomacy (which he rarely gets xp from).

Damian Magecraft - does the 5-800 get rewarded for completing the adventure, or do you try to make the fights and stuff equal out to your total as you write it out?

generally the conflicts will average out to roughly that...though sometimes the critters and the players will shock me....(i tend to avoid combat but when it happens its deadly to all involved)

[t0m]

Theaos - that sounds interesting (and a bit easier). not sure if i could handle it though. my campaigns generally go for years, and i like the pacing of the levels as presented by the books/xp tables. for a shorter game i could see this way being great though. you could set 'markers' in the story where the players level up and forget about it for the rest of the time.